by Onize Ohikere Posted 3/15/19, 10:48 am

North Korea is considering suspending diplomatic talks with the United States and lifting its halt on nuclear tests unless the United States adopts some complementary concessions, a senior North Korean official said Friday. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton created an “atmosphere of hostility and mistrust” that resulted in failed talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their last summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said.

by Onize Ohikere Posted 3/11/19, 12:47 pm

In a surprising move, Malaysian authorities on Monday released one of the two women accused of assassinating Kim Jong Un’s half-brother in 2017. Authorities accused Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, who have spent two years in prison, of smearing VX nerve agent on Kim Jong Nam’s face at the Kuala Lumpur airport in Malaysia on Feb. 13, 2017. Both women insisted they thought they were taking part in a prank for a television show.

by Onize Ohikere Posted 3/06/19, 11:33 am

North Korea has started to rebuild a long-range rocket launch site it promised to destroy last year at the first summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, South Korea and foreign experts said Tuesday. Construction work is ongoing at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station at Tongchang-ri, which the regime previously had partially destroyed, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service reported Tuesday, according to the South Korean Yonhap News Agency.

International
| South Korean sources say Kim’s regime is rebuilding a missile launch site

Mindy Belz | 3/06/19, 11:23 am

NORTH KOREA is rebuilding a missile launch site it promised to dismantle, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. Workers were seen replacing a door and a roof at Tongchang-ri, a site leader Kim Jong Un pledged to destroy in his summit with President Donald Trump last summer. Satellite images show the structures were rebuilt between February 16 and March 2—perhaps before or after U.S.

Onize Ohikere | 3/04/19, 11:38 am

The United States and South Korea on Sunday said they will scale back their annual joint military drills in a diplomatic concession to North Korea following last week’s failed summit. The defense chiefs from both countries agreed to replace the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drills with smaller, revised field training programs and command post exercises, the Pentagon said in a statement.

International
| ISIS could turn a region in Syria into ‘a bloodbath’ without intervention

Mindy Belz | 3/01/19, 12:41 pm

SYRIA: Christians leading aid efforts in the embattled Deir Ezzor region, along with a Norwegian Share Mission Network, are calling for global prayer Friday through Sunday. “This could be a bloodbath here and drag on and on, and concerted prayer is very needed,” said David Eubank, director of Free Burma Rangers, a team of U.S. and Burmese medics and caregivers who have been on the ground near the fighting in Baghuz since Feb. 1.

Rachel Lynn Aldrich | 3/01/19, 11:31 am

The parents of an American college student who died after being detained in North Korea released a statement Friday blaming North Korean leader Kim Jon Un and rebuking U.S. President Donald Trump. After the two leaders met this week in Hanoi, Vietnam, Trump said he takes Kim “at his word” that the leader was unaware of any mistreatment of Otto Warmbier. In the statement, Warmbier’s parents said they were “respectful” during the summit but now needed to speak out. “Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto,” they wrote.

Onize Ohikere | 2/28/19, 11:18 am

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday wrapped up their second summit early after failing to reach an agreement. Kim insisted that the United States lift all the sanctions it imposed on North Korea while only promising to close some nuclear sites, Trump said in a news conference following the talks in Hanoi, Vietnam. Kim appeared willing to shut down secret facilities outside of Yongbyon and its missile and warheads program, but the country would still have other missiles, warheads, and weapons systems. “Sometimes you have to walk,” Trump said.

International
| Plus, from Kew Gardens to Kashmir, it’s hot all over

Mindy Belz | 2/27/19, 11:32 am

AFRICA: United Methodists meeting in St. Louis on Tuesday reaffirmed the denomination’s teaching on sexual ethics, rejecting plans that would permit same-sex marriages and clergy to be sexually active outside of monogamous, heterosexual marriages.

Onize Ohikere | 2/27/19, 11:13 am

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un opened their second summit on Wednesday in Vietnam with friendly greetings and a dinner ahead of denuclearization talks. The leaders shook hands in front of U.S. and North Korean flags at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel in Hanoi and held a brief private meeting before dinner. Trump attended the dinner with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.